


get by with a little help from my friends

by aletterinthenameofsanity



Series: this whole damn city thinks it needs you (but not as much as I do) [3]
Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, SKAM (Italy)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hunger Games Setting, Friendship, M/M, Nico and Marti were Victors from the same Games, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Protectiveness, a bit of a fight, because i really fucking do, cuddle piles, god this is probably the happiest any of my HG AUs get, i guess, mentions of Elippo, my boys are the best, screaming from the rooftops how much i love the italian boy squad, side effect of the boy squad, they're all living in Thirteen, this is during the revolution
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-27
Updated: 2019-11-27
Packaged: 2021-02-26 07:28:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21579910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aletterinthenameofsanity/pseuds/aletterinthenameofsanity
Summary: Marti sees his best friend for the first time in years when the hovercrafts set down in District 13 and the partner-Victors emerge.It's been six years, but Marti would recognize him from half a mile away. Giovanni Garau- another kid born in the Seam, another kid whose father died in the mines. The same year as Marti in school, his best friend since they were five.And then, so much older than he remembers them, Luca and Elia, from his and Giovanni’s class at school, friends of theirs.It’s been years since he’s seen them. Six years, to be exact, since his Reaping. Marti had never gotten to come back. Never gotten to see the friends he’d promised he survive for.He expects them to look at him in disgust. For them to look at him like a monster, for killing those two kids in the Games. For them to hate him when he sees them and his hand is clenched in Nico’s, two killers side by side.He expects- well, he expects so much, none of it good. He expects their expressions to break his heart.But they don’t. Gio’s face breaks into the widest smile in the world when he sees Marti, and Elia and Luca’s expressions aren’t much different.
Relationships: Elia Santini/Filippo Sava, Giovanni Garau & Martino Rametta, Martino Rametta & Giovanni Garau & Elia Santini & Luca Colosi, Minor or Background Relationship(s), Niccolò Fares/Martino Rametta, Sander Driesen/Robbe IJzermans
Series: this whole damn city thinks it needs you (but not as much as I do) [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1553239
Comments: 3
Kudos: 43
Collections: Skam Italia ▶ Niccolo Vares / Martino Rametta





	get by with a little help from my friends

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from "With A Little Help From My Friends" by the Beatles.
> 
> Have I mentioned how much I absolutely goddamn love the Italian boysquad? Have I mentioned how many times I've replayed all of the Bracciano scenes and their scenes with Nico and their scene with the psychologist and the scene with the blazers? Have I? No. Alright, then. I fucking love these boys and their relationship with Nico and everything about them. They are a- no, THE- god-tier friendship.
> 
> Also, there are mentions of Elippo for the one commenter who asked about it. Sorry I couldn't give you more!

_Brother let me be your shelter_

_Never leave you all alone_

_I can be the one you call_

_When you're low_

_Brother let me be your fortress_

_When the night winds are driving on_

_Be the one to light the way_

_Bring you home_

_**-NEEDTOBREATHE,** _ **Brother**

Marti sees his best friend for the first time in years when the hovercrafts set down in District 13 and the partner-Victors emerge as the 82nd Hunger Games continues to play out somewhere elsewhere in Panem.

It's been six years, but Marti would recognize him from half a mile away. Giovanni Garau- another kid born in the Seam, another kid whose father died in the mines. The same year as Marti in school, his best friend since they were five.

(Marti can remember the way that Gio’s hand had nearly shot up when Marti’s name was called, the way his arm had twitched upward at the Reaping, and the way that Marti had held his hand down and stepped forward anyway, unwilling to let his friend go to his death for him.

Gio had loved him, Marti knows, though not in the way that Marti loves Nico. He had always loved Marti, just as he loved Gio- a fierce, protective sort of love stemming from shared heartbreak and genuine friendship.)

And then, so much older than he remembers them, Luca and Elia, from his and Giovanni’s class at school, friends of theirs. Elia, also from the Seam, and Luca, the son of the District's rather destitute plumber. Though he wasn't as incredibly close with them as he was with Gio, he can remember a great many adventures he'd gone on with them, card games played with betting sticks and wine bartered for in the Hob.

It’s been years since he’s seen them. Six years, to be exact, since his Reaping. The last time he saw them, in the Justice Building- they’d hugged him goodbye and he’d only been half-convinced that he’d be able to find a way to make it back to him. He'd been only sixteen, with very few skills on his side, and though he was determined that didn't always amount to much.

But he’d allied himself with Nico and won, and he'd been so sure he'd get to see them again. Then he'd entered the Capitol, only to be told that partner-Victors lived in the Capitol and not their Districts.

Marti had never gotten to come back. Never gotten to see the friends he’d promised he survive and come back for.

He expects them to look at him in disgust. For them to look at him like a monster, for killing those two kids in the Games. For them to hate him when he sees them and his hand is clenched in Nico’s, two killers side by side.

He expects- well, he expects so much, none of it good. He expects their expressions to break his heart.

But they don’t. Gio’s face breaks into the widest smile in the world when he sees Marti, and Elia and Luca’s expressions aren’t much different. They rush him for a hug and Nico slips his hand out of Marti’s, stepping back to allow his friends to pull him into a group hug.

“Man, you’re back,” Gio says, his voice caught halfway to a sob, and Marti’s isn’t much better. Besides Nico and a few of the other Victors, he’s been completely alone for years, now.

“It’s good to see you guys again,” Marti says, and he can’t be certain that his voice isn’t shaking. In fact, he's nearly certain that it is- he kind of feels like sobbing, right now.

"Same here, Marti," Luca says, and Elia ruffles Marti's hair as they part.

The moment their hug breaks off, Marti steps back to see Nico holding himself there, a small smile on his lips but hesitation in his eyes.

“Guys,” Marti says, “I want you all to meet Nico. Nico, my friends from Twelve.” The boys each step forward and offer a hand to Nico, who’s more than willing to return them. “Gio, Luca, Elia.”

“You’re Marti’s partner-Victor, aren’t you?” Luca says, still a bit behind everyone as he’s always been.

“And my actual partner,” Marti says, a relief to finally be able to say it aloud. “In life.”

Luca’s eyes go wide while Gio grins. “You finally locked a man down, Marti?” He turns to Nico. “You’re one lucky man, Fares.”

Marti looks at Nico, thinks of what Nico’s sacrificed over the past six years for Marti, of how Nico had taught Marti how to swim in order to escape the flood in the Arena, of how Marti only made it out because Nico killed his District partner, of how Nico kisses him and loves him.

 _No,_ Marti can’t help but think, _I’m the lucky one._

But Nico beats him to the punch: "Yes, I am," he says with an easy smile, the kind of smile that Marti never got to see outside of their apartment, back in the Capitol. Out in public, Marti got so used to Nico's false smile, the one he carved out for the Capitolites, the one he used to-

Marti doesn't want to think about what Nico was forced to do in the Capitol. Instead, he focuses on Nico in the here and now.

Right now, Nico looks so free, and Marti feels a sense of relief that feels so unfamiliar in the best possible way.

"Well, as long as you know that," Gio says, "Nice to meet you, man."

"Nice to meet you, too."

-

Marti expects a lot, to be honest, and a lot of his expectations prove to be false. Like the expectation that life in Thirteen is all about the war, that there is no fun to be had, that his friends won’t have jokes or gossip, that things have become too strained between them, that there are too many years lost to recover.

But his friends are constantly surprising him. First it’s ease of lunchtime gossip, in between their training in Thirteen.

“Elia’s dating the head of one of the squads,” Gio informs Marti in between bites of oatmeal, “Filippo Sava, and Luca still can’t get it on with anyone,” and here he ignores Luca’s protests, “As you’d probably guessed.”

“And Gio just went through a nasty break up a few months ago," Elia joins in, "Eva, the tailor's daughter. Remember her?"

Marti does, in fact. He remembers the fact that Gio had a crush on her since they were but twelve and had their names in the Reaping Bowl for the first time, when Gio was staring at the red-haired girl in the yellow dress and Marti had been staring at the boy onstage.

"She move to Thirteen?" Marti asks as he eats with one hand and holds Nico's with the other.

Marti holds Nico’s hand all the time, now that they’re out of the Capitol and he can actually _do_ that, now that the President isn't threatening Nico or the friends Marti left back home in Twelve- these friends, here, who have accepted Nico into the friend group so easily and without hesitation, almost as if he was always there, as if years and an Arena don’t separate Marti from his friends.

Luca nods. "Her and Gio were together for a couple of years but, you know, shit happens."

Marti almost wants to laugh at the sheer understatement that that is. "Shit happens"- fuck, if only he could describe everything he's gone through as "shit happening."

It's so perfectly absurdly normal that it's actually comforting.

-

Then there’s the sheer amount of fun his friends have when cleaning their barracks, which in no way _should_ be fun but they make it so.

As they clean, they sing old District Twelve songs, the kinds of which Marti hasn’t gotten to hear on the Capitol radio in years, the cheery ones that speak to love stories and better times.

It’s so easy to slip back into years ago, into his ease with the boys. Into a world that was hard, and desperate, but that had not been touched by war and the Games. A world where Marti hadn’t murdered two kids on national television, a world where there has not been years stolen between him and his best friends.

A world that still has Nico, yes, because he can't imagine any world of his not having Nico. Nico, who's been there for Marti since their training days pre-Arena, who Marti escaped an Arena with, who he's shared a home with for six years.  
  
  


-

But then there’s a fight, and everything goes to shit.

Nico and Marti are heading down a hallway, hand in hand, and some idiots think it's be a good idea to try to attack two Victors in the middle of the night, try to insult them and then to fight them.

There _are_ reasons to think that ten of them taking on just Marti and Nico would be a good idea. After all, Marti had executed his kills with the use of traps. He was deadly, but in a hand-to-hand fight- well, he was shit. The final kill of his Games had been made by Nico stabbing a girl in the back within the split second she’d had Marti pinned against the wall.

There’s a reason why Marti and Nico won, all those years ago, and it was a combination of things. It was a desperation for survival and a skill at weapons and a hell of a lot of luck.

Here, in Thirteen- they get attacked, and it’s like the Arena all over again. A dark hallway, just like the abandoned shafts that their Games took place in. It's just Nico and Marti against the Arena, against the Capitol, against the world.

Something triggers in Marti’s mind and he’s not exactly sure how much of what happens his brain actually captures. He gets punched in the face and Nico's getting attacked and he'd survived, he'd survived, this was supposed to be fucking over.

But it's not. Because of course it's not. Because the first thing you learn as Victor is that you're never leaving that Arena, that it will always haunt you, that the moment you are crowned you are entering a second Arena in the Capitol that you will never escape from.

By the time it’s over, Marti’s got a bloody nose and a bruise on his cheek but all he’s worried about is Nico, leaning against the wall, an angry red cut scoring his uniform shirt and a black eye. Marti’s instantly to his partner’s side, hand tenderly touching his face as he checks Nico over.

“I’m fine, Marti,” Nico says, that Four accent of his pulling Marti’s name in that way it always does. “We’ve suffered a lot worse in the Arena. And besides, I think we have worse problems.”

“Fuck, you’re right,” Marti says, “We’re gonna get into so much trouble. Half of this District already hates us for what we did in the Games.”

Then Gio crosses the room to them, and Marti realizes, to his horror, that Gio has a bit of blood on his face, too.

“Fuck,” Marti says, “You got into that fight with us?” He'd thought he'd seen them, but he'd thought that maybe he'd been dreaming, just like he'd done in the actual Arena itself.

Gio nods. "Of course we did," he starts to say, and Marti sees that Elia's here, too, looking similarly beaten up, and Marti's panic interrupts and overrides Gio.

“I just ruined your reputations," Marti says, a lump rising in his throat. "They're all going to hate you for defending us-"

“There was no way in Panem that I was going to let you two face down a mob like that alone,” Gio says, and Elia nods, as well. Luca just starts to pull supplies out of his medic's bag so that way he can patch them all up.

"We're your friends, Marti, whether you like it or not," Elia says with a smirk as Luca goes to Nico and starts to clean and bandage the cut on his side, easily the worst of any of the wounds that any of them have. Marti lets go of Nico's face but not his hand, refusing to let go.

"It's just..." Marti doesn't know how to explain it. How to put into words how much damage the Games did to him, how much he doesn't want his friends to be turned into the killers that he and Nico are, desensitized to violence and falling into nightmares every evening. How much he wants them to stay just the boys they once were. "I don't want you guys pulled into our shit."

“You’re still the same man I was friends with all of those years ago," Gio says, somehow knowing the right thing to say after all of these years. "My best friend. If you have shit, I will gladly and willingly get pulled into your shit. You and Nico- you didn't deserve that."

Marti swallows, feeling a lump rising in his throat, and Nico squeezes his hand, just a little, in reassurance. "Thank you guys," Nico says, not budging as Luca presses hard into his wound to clean it. "For everything. For protecting Marti."

Gio snorts. "You're one of us, too," he says with a smile, "We're _your_ friends, too, Nico."

There's something bright and shiny in Nico's eyes that glimmers in the dim light of the hallway and Marti rubs his thumb along Nico's knuckles, trying to reassure him as he cries- a technique developed after years of watching Nico suffer in the Capitol and trying to find a way to covertly comfort him during interviews or galas.

Nico looks at him with the brihgtest of smiles on his face. "I'm fine," he says, and for once his tone is competely truthful and sincere, something utterly happy spilling out.

-

Marti wakes up in the middle of the night, a nightmare scream trapped between his teeth. He is sweating from the memories of the Arena, of watching the two girls from Two and Seven die in his trap in one fell swoop. He's trying to breathe through the memories of Nico stabbing Maddalena, his own District partner, in the back in order to save Marti's life in the final battle.

But Nico's worse, shaking against him, trembling like a leaf in a way that he hasn't since their last week in the Capitol, a couple of months ago. "Marti?" he croaks, reaching out for Marti, and Marti lets Nico pull him in without protest.

"We're out of the Games," Marti tries to reassure him, caressing his cheek, but Nico can't stop trembling.

"Is he okay?" Luca asks, startling Marti, as he thought that him and Nico were the only two awake in the room.

"Games-nightmare," Marti says, matter-of-fact, as he brushes the sweaty curls from Nico's forehead. "Hasn't had them this bad since we got to Thirteen." He glances over Nico's head to his friends. "But after the fight yesterday..."

Gio surveys the situation, calm and collected as always, and then yanks his blanket and pillow off of his bed and drops it to the ground. Then he grabs the bedding off of Marti's bed- almost never used, as he tends to tuck himself in with Nico on his bed- and throws it on top as well.

"What're you doing?" Marti asks, raising an eyebrow even as he continues to try and soothe Nico's shakes, running a hand down his side.

"The five of us are gonna have a cuddle pile in the middle of the room," Gio says, eyes warm, and Luca lets out a small cheer as he, too, yanks his pillow and blanket off of the bed and adds it to the pile in the middle. "You and Nico should get your asses down here."

It's a childish, simple, stupid idea- and it's fucking perfect. Physical contact for Nico is a comfort, as long as it's not in a vulnerable place.

"You wanna?" Marti offers, and Nico gives him a fragile smile.

"Sounds like a great idea," Nico says, and so Marti helps a shaking Nico down onto the pile on the ground, where Elia has added his own bedding. Gio goes behind Marti and grabs Nico's bedding, too, chucking it down so that they can all curl up together.

Marti's heart is growing and growing until he thinks that it just might explode in his chest. The fact that his friends- the friends he only reconnected with two months ago- care so much about Nico already to help him like this, is possibly the best thing he's learned in years.

After years of living in the Capitol, of getting used to getting courtesy only from fellow Victors and being treated like an object by Capitolites, simple human kindness goes so fucking far. What the boys are doing- being super attentive and caring- goes above and beyond anything that Marti could have expected.

"Thank you," he whispers to Gio once they're all on the ground, Nico tucked in on one side and Gio on the other.

"No problem, brother," Gio says with a wide grin, and Marti couldn't be more thankful for what he has. For the friends he has surrounding him, for the man he loves, for a revolution that saved him and Nico.

-

Robbe stops by Marti and his friends’ lunch table the next day. “I heard what happened,” he says, and Marti thinks about the fact that Robbe and his partner, Sander, have only been Victors for two years. About the fact that Robbe killed just like Marti did, using traps, even if Robbe's traps were just the mechanism to catch kills rather than the executioner itself. About the fact that Robbe lived in Martino's position, watching Sander get used by Capitolites, useless to save him. "You guys okay?"

Marti nods. "All thanks to these guys," he says, gesturing to his friends around him, who all wave at Robbe like an old friend.

“Those idiots won’t be attacking any of you guys anytime soon,” Gio says, his words a promise, and Robbe smiles, just a little.

"How are you settling into Thirteen?" Luca asks, the constant force of optimism at the table.

"Sander and I are doing pretty well," Robbe says, "There was a bit of an adjustment for him, but Milan ended up coming with, too, so that was pretty helpful. There are a couple of rebels already here that Milan gets along with really well- Zoe and Senne- and the three of us are living with them."

Elia grins. "Zoe and Senne? They're pretty nice. Filippo's sister trains with them."

"Speaking of Filippo," Marti says, "When are Nico and I going to get to meet him? It's been two months since we moved here."

"All in due time, my friend," Elia says, waving a hand, and Nico smiles up at Robbe, able to ignore Marti's friends antics for a few moments.

"I'm glad that Sander had an easy time settling in," Nico says, "It's good to be able to have friends to support you, especially when you didn't have any before."

Something squeezes in Marti's chest at the reminder of how alone they'd been before, in the Capitol, of how much Marti's friends have accepted and loved Nico as one of their own.

"Aw," Gio says, leaning in and giving Nico a big side-hug. "We're glad to have you too, man."

Marti just smiles as he takes a bite of today's bread, hard as Twelve's used to be. It's just a step above Nico's disastrous cooking, but tastes like home, so he's far happier to have it than anything the Capitol ever served them.

He's so happy to have found a home here, in Thirteen, with these friends of his, with the man he loves. To be able to be happy and free enough, for the first time in six years. Sure, there's still a war going on, but he's comfortable and safe here in a way he never was in the Capitol or the Arena.

Sure, there are people here who hate him, but he has a family that loves him. People who will support and protect him.

Martino Rametta, Victor of the 76th Hunger Games, finally has a _home_.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you all liked it! I had so much fun writing this and hope you had fun reading it, too.


End file.
